It’s been 58 years since Uganda achieved independence. The effort, hustle, blood and passion of our respected freedom fighters gave us the Uganda of today. It was their scrucial dream to craft a nation whose members were free and a vital part of the country’s decision making.
Our country’s democracy with its much detailed Constitution was a result of the dreams of those freedom fighters and leaders that we had at that time though many of them did not bring total freedom to the country as was expected but later on the real freedom fighters came in and todate we have a peaceful country whose leadership is based on the constitution.
Fifty eight years on, Uganda might be free and those running the nation might be the elected representatives of the masses, but it continues to be faced by poverty, illiteracy, widespread corruption and some socio-economic issues not because that’s what the government in power wants but because of the wrong elements that we have in the politics of the country.
Its these wrong elements in the politics of that country that have made sure that certain policies don’t work as expected because of their love for politicking and populism. Every time government comes up with policies of getting taxes to do the things that the people want, the opposition and the Non Government Organizations start making too much noise and these policies end up being ignored. Several projects have been failed and totally abandoned in this country because of politics and we end up losing as a people of this country.
Since my childhood I have been dreaming and thinking differently about some political decisions, I may not think like many other Ugandans, I may not say exactly what everyone wants to hear but I will say this in good faith because it’s what I think and dream of, I think time is coming for this country to have an able, strong-minded, powerful dictator to take hold of the country and cleanse the entire political system of this country.
I say this because I see president Museveni being so humble and giving too much freedom to the people to do what they want. It is this democratic leadership that President Museveni brought that is making Ugandans so slow in that they want government to do everything for them.
It’s only in Uganda that someone who calls himself/herself opposition goes on a radio/Television to attack, abuse and show disrespect to the president and his government, it’s in this country that someone uses a radio or Television to announce a demonstration that causes unrest in the public. It’s still in this very country that a tax body has to plead with the people to pay their taxes. It’s in this country that the people throw stones at the security forces that protect them.
There is a lot and a lot that I would say to that effect but that is enough for everyone to know that at least Uganda needs someone who is not as humble as President Museveni and that is the dictator me that I always dream about.
With this dream of mine, I keep thinking of being the best dictator on the continent, I think for Uganda to be better than how it is, there needs to be a person like me who thinks being humble is not good especially if you aim at developing a country at a high speed.
I really think that a country like Uganda that possesses a lot of diversity in every aspect should go in hands of a patriotic and straightforward dictator for a particular period. The current situation is where everyone is having a lot of freedom in different terms and they are misusing it in exploiting other social and Economic issues.
People with their vibrant thoughts are actually taking the priorities of misguiding others and taking them on a crooked path of revolution and at last controversies. The main problem that needs serious attention is the issue of infrastructural development and the fight against corruption.
We need good roads everywhere, we need well equipped hospitals everywhere etc but such projects are being failed by some irresponsible ugandans, corrupt Ugandans and some politicians, that’s why I think that if Uganda had a person who thinks in a dictatorial way like me, it wouldn’t allow anyone or anything that stands against development.
Dictatorship is a necessary prelude to democracy. Liberal democracies don’t come about overnight. I have made some observations especially on those countries that many people say that their presidents are dictators and I have seen them develop faster than those that are very democratic. How does this happen? Countries like Cuba, North Korea and China are far better than those `very democratic countries and this is because the governments in these countries make decisions and implement them there and then without allowing any other negative opinions.
I personally believe in dictatorship because being the all powerful head of the state, you can’t face opposition from other parties as in a democracy. You can have complete freedom to execute your decisions which might breed development. Now looking at countries like China, it being a communist country, the leadership made a decision that the population should be brought under control by the government, through the one-child norm policy which is virtually impossible in democracies like Uganda or India.
Too much democracy has made many economies to fail and the best example is West Bengal where the Tata group could not establish their factory in Singur due to stiff resistance from the opposition party in the government and that’s the same issue that happened here years ago when some members of parliament wrote to the World Bank stopping it from funding the Bujagali dam project.
As I conclude, I just want my fellow Ugandans to know that I am not encouraging our one and only President Museveni to become a dictator but I am just proposing that he should look at some of these dictatorial governments and copy one thing or two. By him doing so, we shall solve the issue of corruption, too much freedom and yes the country will develop at a high speed if all government policies are implemented without any opposition.
Michael Woira
Patriotic Ugandan
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